More Indians painted

American Indians were among my first 'toy soldiers'. I always liked them for their variety. On the other hand they lost their gloss a little over time because of their sheer ubiquity. Likewise I could say with cowboys ACW and WW2. 

On the other hand the Armies in Plastic woodland Indians represent a particular colonial era not catered for so much with the traditional Red Indians that are mainly based on the plains Indians.

Below, the four Indians to the right are Armies In Plastic Woodlands Indians and will join my existing unit of musket armed Indians.

The Indian shading his eyes is a slightly larger scale and originally he had either a rifle or a spear in his hand. I made the bow from curved wire and the bow string from a hair off my head. (I really should go easy there as I don't have as much as I once hadto donate to the toy soldier cause as I once had). I also made a putty quiver with arrows from wire and putty and the strap is paper glued with PVA. The trousers are interesting; normally the Indians have leggings and loin cloth. However, an illustration in one of Mike Blake's 1970s ACW infantry or cavalry books shows a Confederate Indian in trousers that look suspiciously like flares that are split at the ends, rather like this fellow's trousers. For that reason I painted them grey even though Confederate Indians such as Cherokees usually wore European style clothes and were mostly armed with firearms. In any case he will see service in a great many periods. I'd like to find another and give him a fur hat to look like a Hun or Mongol because I just love the pose of peering into the distance, perhaps from an ambush site. The figure itself was a brown plastic figure from the sixties. I think it was a HK copy of an American make. I always loved the brown plastic HK Indians I had as a boy.